Earl Bakken, founder of Medtronic
Medtronic, Inc. (NYSE: MDT), based in Minneapolis, Minnesota[2], is the world's largest medical technology company and is included in the list of Fortune 500 companies. Medtronic company was founded in 1949 in a garage in northeast Minneapolis by Earl Bakken and his brother-in-law Palmer Hermundslie as a medical equipment repair shop. Bakken had began as a graduate student in electrical engineering at the University of Minnesota before he gave up his studies to focus on Medtronic. Through their repair business, Bakken came to know C. Walton Lillehei, a pioneer in the field of heart surgeon then at the University of Minnesota Medical School. Lillehei was frustrated with the pacemakers of the day, which were quite large, applied electrical current externally (requiring higher voltages), and had to be plugged in to a wall outlet to operate.
The deficiencies of such pacemakers were made painfully obvious following a power outage over Halloween in 1957 which affected large sections of Minnesota and western Wisconsin[1]. As a direct result of this blackout, a pediatric patient of Dr. Lillehei who was pacemaker-dependent died. The next day, Lillehei spoke with Bakken about developing some form of battery-powered pacemaker. Stemming from this need, Bakken modified a design for a transistorized metronome to create the first battery-powered external artificial pacemaker.
The company expanded through the 1950s, mostly selling equipment built by other companies, but also developing some custom devices. Bakken built a small transistorized pacemaker that could be strapped to the body and powered by batteries. Work into this new field continued, producing an implantable pacemaker in 1960. Medtronic's main competitors in the cardiac rhythm field include Boston Scientific and St. Jude Medical.
The company remains very focused on the mission originally written by co-founder Earl Bakken in the early-1960s. The first paragraph of the 6 paragraph mission statement reads:
"To contribute to human welfare by application of biomedical engineering in the research, design, manufacture, and sale of instruments or appliances that alleviate pain, restore health, and extend life."
On May 11, 2009, Medtronic announced it has chosen San Antonio, Texas for the location of its new Diabetes Therapy Management and Education Center. An expected 1,400 new jobs will be created to staff the 150,000 square-foot facility.[2]
Medtronic is composed of six main business units which develop and manufacture devices and therapies to treat more than 30 chronic diseases, including (but not limited to) heart failure, Parkinson's, urinary incontinence, obesity, chronic pain, and diabetes.
Medtronic Business Units
CRDM
[3] is the oldest and largest of Medtronic's business units. Their work in heart rhythm therapies dates back to 1957, when co-founder Earl Bakken developed the first wearable heart pacemaker to treat abnormally slow heart rates. Since then, they have expanded their expertise in electrical stimulation to treat other cardiac rhythm diseases. They have also made an effort to address overall disease management by adding diagnostic and monitoring capabilities to many of their devices.
Spinal & Biologics
CardioVascular
Neuromodulation
Diabetes
Medtronic Diabetes is the diabetes management manufacturing and sales division of Medtronic based in Northridge, California. The original company Minimed Technologies was founded in the early 1980s and spun-off from Pacesetter Systems, in order to design a practical insulin pump for lifelong wear. Most devices at the time were either too large or impossible to program and extremely unreliable. The release of the lightweight, menu-driven MiniMed 500 series changed the landscape, and was a major factor in bringing pump usage to the mainstream. By the early 2000s Medtronic had bought out Minimed to form Medtronic Minimed.
Current models consist of the MiniMed Paradigm 522/722 and paradigm Real-time system and Guardian Real-time system. It is the first Insulin Pump which integrates continuous glucose monitoring, allowing patients to see in real time their glucose level. As well as insulin pumps Medtronic Diabetes also makes Continuous Blood Glucose Monitoring Systems (CGMS) for use as a stand alone system or integrated into their Minimed Paradigm 522/722 series pumps. Medtronic Diabetes also makes a large range of accessories and components for their insulin pump and CGMS products.
As of March 2007 the MiniMed name has begun to be absorbed into the parent company, Medtronic. Medtronic has kept the MiniMed name to brand their insulin pumps, for example: The MiniMed Paradigm 722. Medtronic frequently uses Medtronic Diabetes as the name for the division, it is unclear to the extent the division will be integrated into Medtronic, as it still maintains its own website. Many products and marketing material still say Medtronic MiniMed however, the brand is being phased out.
Surgical Technologies
Maximo security vulnerability
In March 2008 researchers at the medical device security center released a report indicating that a security vulnerability in the Maximo Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator could permit attackers to remotely gain access to personal patient information, alter treatment instructions, or even induce potentially fatal rhythms.[3]
See also
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